Sunset Boulevard, I never been there but I have watched the movie.
It was the first time I saw Cecil B DeMille as an actor. I n Sri lanka we don’t
have boulevards.
Boulaverd the name
itself related to French.Sri Lanka lucky or unluckily never become a colony of France. We have almost every British ,Dutch urban
design features such as water fountains,
crescents, esplanade, tea gardens, forts, forecourts’, but not French urban planning
not even a single word of it.
Typical boulevard character is large wide road running
through the city which allows vehicles to move and both side pedestrian walkway
with a buffer of trees. It says during the time of Louis XIV, that he wanted
run his royal carriage without any obstructs, so he cleans the road and widen
it. Also it says during the French revolution the king
wanted widening of the road for military
purpose.
Still the famous Champs-Élysées
one of the best tourist attraction on
14 th of July for its military Parade.
Apart from that those who visited France
will never miss this boulevard because it is connecting the triumph of arch and
Place Charles de Gaulle. The other best thing is very expensive shops. So far I have not done shopping in Champs-Élysées
but someday who knows.
As an urban design feature the boulevard concept nicely
adopted in many countries. The famous sunset boulevard does not have large tree
like France, but it has palm trees which gives
certain uniqueness and different feel.
Anyway I never had been to Sunset Boulevard either.
Who cares that Edgar Rice Burroughs
never been to Africa, but still he wrote Tarzen and whole series is about Africa,
the jungle .I think we don t have to be the place to enjoy it.We never been to
moon but we feel it and enjoy it.Writing poems about it.
But in Sri Lanka I do pass the Denzil Kobbakaduwa Mawatha. Well
it’s not even remotely close like Champs-Élysées in Paris or Sunset Boulevard
in LA either .But it has nice large canopy of trees which reminds something different
where I can’t expect close to Colombo.
Lieutenant General Denzel
Kobbekaduwa is a Sri Lankan war hero who died long before the Final battle in Pudu Matalan. Actually he died in Kytes island,
if you are been to Naga deepa through island Kytes there is a road post showing
Araly.That is the place Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekaduwa was assassinated including another ten or more high rank army
offcers,Even his death was subjected to lot of rumors and his wife called for
an international commission into the incident. But this was not granted, again the
Sri Lankan government set up their own commission to investigate. A
Presidential Commission carried out by the Sri Lankan Government and it concluded
making two people directly responsible for this incident, one of them was a
former Sri Lankan President. Well that al belongs to history, now we have only
this road named after him,
During the time he was assassinated he had, successfully won
the Vadamarachchi Operation in 1987.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadamarachchi_Operation)
As per the war expertise there was a propensity of ending
the Sir Lankan civil war If Lieutenant General Denzel Kobbekaduwa was alive,
The last time when I was in Jaffna, I really wanted to go
Araly at least to see the monument but the sandy road does not give the
permission to my small car, so I had to turn back. I’m not a person who simply
turns back, I started walk but it was burning sun it was dam too hard to walk
and alone. My mother strongly refused the idea of walking.
Again back to the Denzel Kobbekaduwa Mawatha, when I heard
this road first time I was working as an apprentice in Arch.Sumangala Jayatilake’s
studio spaced out. I was in second year or third year in my architectural education.
As an apprentice one duty was answering
to the landline. It was a famous advertising owner who called to our office saying that he wanted to help with
building for Army veterans,we helped with the design and drawings were submitted
to a famous Buddhist monk .At that time this road did not look green as today.
Now
the building we designed. can be seen on the left side of the junction from
Battaramulla side. The planting of trees was a one of very clever idea I’m not
sure who made that decision. But I am pretty sure this road did not belongs to
recent Colombo city modifications, Because still I don t see the red paving
blocks on the pedestrian walk.
The road continues up Koswatta Junction, but the tree canopy
has only 2/3 of this road which is quit shame. There are several government offices
are located, but I am more regular to the fish market which is nearly on the
end of the road. Also there is a small park recently has opend.
I too have nice
memories on this road. It does not matter whether you drive, walk or standing under
a tree it sort of nice experience. I have done all of these at the moment the
pedestrian walk way under renovations, seems
it’s going to be cement block paving’s.
I wish instead of that tree canopy will continue up to the Koswatta Junction.
We also this as an alternative access to the parliament road
to avoid Battaramulla city traffic. I think it may be the idea of this road
because public transport has not encouraged yet. Some of you may not recognize this
road by its name or canopy of trees, yet you may be gone to Havai
restaurant perhaps for a drink at night with friends where you cannot notice
any of above.
